With a hunger strike drawing crowds daily in San Jose’s City Hall plaza, the “Little Saigon” protests have devolved into theater of the absurd.

It’s the kind of thing maverick anti-communist hunger striker Ly Tong does best. He’s turned what had been a once-weekly picket line into a 24-hour circus. His action is so disproportionate to the cause that it’s widely seen as a joke – at the expense of San Jose and its Vietnamese community. People are shaking their heads in wonder: The name for a shopping strip is worth dying for?

That’s what’s at stake here. The protesters want to call a one-mile stretch of Story Road “Little Saigon,” but Councilwoman Madison Nguyen persuaded a majority of her colleagues to approve “Saigon Business District” instead. The council will rescind that vote March 4 because of perceptions that it violated California’s open meeting law, but a resolution of the core conflict remains elusive.

Nobody, including Nguyen, foresaw the degree to which the decision on this name would consume the city, even before Tong’s hunger strike.

“Little Saigon” protesters say San Jose government is undemocratic because they haven’t gotten their way. But some use intimidation and other undemocratic practices themselves, while rejecting democratic hallmarks such as compromise.

The constant protests are ineffective and tired. If the protesters are serious about wanting Nguyen out of office, it’s time to start circulating petitions to recall her, the legal remedy under the city charter. Nguyen and Mayor Chuck Reed already have suggested a referendum on the name.

A hunger strike can be an honorable protest when it addresses matters of life and death or fundamental human rights. By using one to press for a name on a cluster of shopping centers, Tong diminishes the tactic, appearing more like a petulant child who refuses to eat supper until he gets his way.

And let’s get one thing straight. If he becomes ill or dies in this protest, it will not be, as he claims, the fault of the city council. It’s his choice, and the people who encourage him should be ashamed.

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